By Brigitte Yuille - Reporter-News
Texas children experiencing maltreatment at home will not only receive continued assistance from the U.S. government to find safe and permanent living arrangements but they also will benefit from new and innovative services.
Congress saved two federal programs set to expire at the end of September with the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act. The Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program and the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services (CWS) program were extended five years.
This legislation leaves too many problems unresolved but in our current climate I believe its about the best that we can do to protect the well-being of at-risk children U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett a Democrat from Austin told the Huffington Post. Doggett a ranking member of the Human Resources Committee co-authored the measure.
The act signed into law by President Barack Obama gives the PSSF program $345 million per year from funds written in the law and $200 million in funds approved by Congress. The CWS program will receive $325 million annually in funds permitted by Congress.
States can spend the money given to the PSSF program on services that give children permanent homes either though reunification adoption or other living arrangements. The funds for the CWS program are used to stop children from entering foster care and money is given to those services that keep families together.
The law renewed the Court Improvement Program for five years. Also the Department of Health and Human Services can grant up to 10 new state waivers per year through fiscal year 2014. These waivers allow states to be innovative and let them have more flexibility in the use of federal foster care dollars; however they must demonstrate a comprehensive plan for the use of alternative services.
David Cory education chair of the Texas Council of Child Welfare Boards was employed for more than 20 years in Child Protective Services agencies in Abilene. He believes child protective services in Texas are underfunded.
In all of the time that Ive been associated with it its been at a fairly low level of funding with very very limited prevention activities Cory said. And so the city and probably two-thirds of the funding that a state does get or that a CPS program gets is federal funding.
Statistics gathered by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services show that in fiscal year 2010 630 children in Taylor County were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect. At that time 118 children were removed from their homes and 31 were awaiting adoption.
The Department of Family and Protective Services is working on a provision in the law for children younger than 5 to reduce the amount of time they are in foster care said Patrick Crimmins spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
The department also is working on an innovative program called Fostering Connections which Crimmins says is designed to place as many children as possible with family members relatives or close family friends instead of strangers.
